


A Smile Like The Sun

by nerdqueenenterprise



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crushes, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, also yes this contains a nice car who do you think wrote this??, bits of nerd/jock dynamic but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 22:35:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13645827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdqueenenterprise/pseuds/nerdqueenenterprise
Summary: Everybody knows Chris Pike, because he's pretty and funny and it's kind of impossible not to like him.Philmost certainly likes him, even though he's never talked to the guy before.And then they get paired up in chemistry lab and suddenly he has to talk to Chris.





	A Smile Like The Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gracieminabox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracieminabox/gifts).



> a birthday present for [gracie](http://www.gracieminabox.tumblr.com), delivered one and a half months late, aka in a timely fashion :D

If your school is big enough that you don’t know everyone personally, but small enough that you know a lot of names, then you’ve got a very big problem. Namely the problem that there’s Christopher Pike, who drives a really cool bike, who wears a really cool jacket, who’s got a really nice voice, who’s a really good singer, who’s popular and pretty and cool. And he prefers to be called Chris and his chosen friends or gang members or those who belong to the upper social caste of this particular school are allowed to just holler “yo, Chris!” at him.

Phil is decidedly not. Because Phil wears button up shirts and proper pants instead of jeans and t-shirts, and also he doesn’t have a bike - and never will, because that’s both scary and dangerous - and he’s not exactly extroverted and he’s not cool or funny or any of those things.

Instead he holds on tight to the strap of his bag and winds his way through the masses of people currently packing the halls.

He doesn’t mind that they don’t part for him, and that he isn’t greeted by half the school in a desperate competition to be acknowledged by their all-star, their hero Chris. He doesn’t want that kind of attention, doesn’t need it, doesn’t soak in it like one blond angel does with that almost benevolent smile that turns to belly-cramping laughter so quickly because it seems easy to make Chris laugh, and he’s never not smiling, like he lives in a world of eternal sunshine.

    “Heyyyy, big bro!” His sister crashes against the locker next to his with a blindingly wide grin. “Saw your future husband just now. He looked a little lonely. You should go say hi.”

Phil tries not to groan, because that’ll just give her the validation she needs to keep that up.

    “He’s not -”

    “He also has the, um, chem lab with Mrs Weaver first period today. You know, just in case you need a partner, now that the year just started and all.” She smiles sweetly, pats his shoulder and is gone, leaving him with… that.

Great. So for the first time, he’ll have a class with Chris. Which would be fine, if Chris wasn’t, well, the most stunningly beautiful and charming person Phil had ever met. Not that he ever met Chris, because Chris has his friends and throngs of admirers and Phil and his friends are on a different end of the social spectrum.

And Phil, concentrating in a class where a few tables away there’s Chris Pike goofing off? Not likely at all. 

But not only does he need good grades in that class (hello? Medical school, anyone?), but he also can’t afford to be caught drooling over the schoolwide favorite. He’d rather save himself that embarrassment.

  
  


Phil isn’t running late, but he speedwalks across the campus anyways, in the hope that if he arrives early, he’ll get a good seat, somewhere right in the front where he won’t see too much of Chris. It’s definitely early enough that Chris won’t be caught anywhere near a classroom yet.

An engine roars somewhere, blocked by a wall of people who’re all staring at something. Phil isn’t stupid - he knows exactly who they’re staring at, and he definitely doesn’t know that because he knows the sound Chris’ bike makes. No, there’s a perfectly good explanation behind that.

There’s also a perfectly good explanation for why he stopped and turned and stared as well. Probably.

Ugh, and now he’s blushing. 

  
  


He does arrive at his classroom early enough (one of the first, actually), and gets a really nice seat close to the windows and right in front. Which may be a little very nerdy, but at least he’ll have incentive not to be distracted by Chris.

The good thing is that Chris is probably an asshole. Because why else would he be so popular, right? All the popular people are assholes. There’s Jenner, there’s Chloe, there’s whatshisface the cross country guy, and all the other assorted kids.

Phil takes out his notepad and book and some pens and takes a sip of his water and tries to look like he’s just here early, not like he’s desperate to suck up to their teacher.

  
  


The other kids trickle in, and the seat next to Phil stays empty. Actually, the whole row stays empty, until two girls take the seats towards the aisle, chatting amongst themselves.

The seat directly next to Phil does stay empty though.

That is until Mrs Weaver is just putting her stuff on the table, getting ready to start the lesson. The door bangs one last time, and a voice Phil knows too well calls out: “Sorry, Mrs Weaver, didn’t mean to be late.”

Chris’ steps hesitate and Phil realizes with a sudden start that until he’s completely wrong, the last seat to be occupied is right next to him. Which will mean Chris will sit next to Phil for the remainder of the year. Which will mean that they’ll be lab partners for the remainder of the year.

    “Hey, is this seat still free?”

Chris is definitely closer to him right now than he’s ever been (apart from that one incident that Phil doesn’t even dare think about in broad daylight for fear of blushing as bright as a traffic light). 

Phil’s heart is somewhere in his throat, but he manages to stammer out a “yeah, sure” while staring straight ahead. Chris’ presence is like a blindingly hot fire inches from Phil. He barely dares to breathe.

Chris slides into the seat and then Mrs Weaver starts the lesson. 

Phil doesn’t hear much from what she’s saying through the static in his ears. Chris has his hands clasped on the table, wrists swallowed by the brown of his leather jacket. He’s got very nice hands, as far as Phil can tell from the corners of his eyes.

  
  


Their fingers touch briefly when Chris passes the stack of lab scripts to Phil. 

And then they’re supposed to turn to each other and discuss what topic to choose for their first big project. 

This close up Chris is stunning, plush bottom lip and that little smile he always wears and his nose, just as straight as him, probably, and steely blue eyes and finally that mop of golden blonde hair. 

He’s so beautiful Phil wants to cry.

    “Hey,” Chris says, still with that sunny smile. “So, uh, I’m gonna be perfectly honest here - I don’t really understand chemistry that well. So, um, I don’t know, if you could maybe run me through the basics sometime?”

Phil would rob a bank if Chris asked.

    “Uh, like a study date or something? I mean - I hear you’re… good at -” Chris waves his hand at their surroundings in the most vague way possible. “- school and stuff, and, you know, if you’ve got the time to spare, sometime, maybe.”

A study date. That’s… making him feel like his brain is going to leak out of his ears.

    “Phil?” The smile is gone from Chris’ face and he leans in, looking concerned. “Are you okay?”

     “Yeah, sure,” Phil says from somewhere far away from where he is right now. “Sure. Uh, you got a day in mind?”

The smile is back on Chris’ face. “Really? That’s awesome! I’ve got practice this afternoon, but… tomorrow? At the library maybe? Close to the, um, place where they make those really good milkshakes?”

Phil manages to nod. And then, taking a really deep breath, he forms a coherent sentence: “Do you know what you’d like to do for the project?”

And then they have an actual conversation.

  
  


And then they all turn in their project topics, and then Mrs Weaver talks some more about lab safety and how to pass her class and all kinds of things, and then the lesson is over and she sends them on their way.

    “Hey,” Chris says just before Phil is about to pack his stuff away. “Um -” And he looks at Phil, really looks at him, and suddenly he’s scrawling something onto Phil’s open notepad. “My phone number. Text me sometime about whether tomorrow works? I gotta go now, but… yeah.”

And he goes and Phil feels like clutching the notepad to his chest.

  
  


The rest of the day is over in a breeze and suddenly Phil is home, sits down on his bed, and - Chris called him Phil. Chris knows his name. Somehow, Chris Pike paid enough attention to him to  _ know his name _ . And they’re going to meet up. And he gave Phil his number. 

And what is Phil supposed to text him? “Hi, you’re beautiful and I love you.” Or not. Something cool. Something normal. Something friendly. Something you can say when your lab partner is movie star levels of stunning.

_ Hi, it’s Phil, just wanted to say that I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. _

That sounded normal, right?

_ me too! thanks again for helping me! _

 

    “So how was your class?” Grace launches herself onto his bed.

Phil almost drops his phone.

    “You know, the class with Christopher? Huh? How was it? Did he ask to marry you yet?”

Phil groans and lets himself fall sideways onto his pillow.

    “He asked me to uh, help him get up to speed with chemistry.”

    “That’s good, right?”

    “No, that’s horrible! I don’t know enough about chemistry, and even if I did - we’re gonna meet after school! Gracie, I’m - I’m going to  _ die _ , I can’t meet up with him in a casual environment! What if he hates me!”

    “What if he  _ likes  _ you though? Come on! It’s gonna be great, you’re gonna have so much fun!”

    “And he knew my name. He knew my name, Gracie! What am I going to  _ do _ ! He knows my name, and he’s going to - we’re going to sit there together and I’ll be expected to, I don’t know, to talk with him and explain things to him and just - god, what am I going to do?”

  
  


He’s going to mildly panic the entire bus ride to school, apparently, and then Chris manages to hop out of a really nice car that he just parked very fluidly right in front of Phil, looking just as dashing as ever.

And then he walks over to Phil.

    “Hi,” Chris says with a beautiful sunny smile.

    “Hi,” Phil replies dumbly because he does have manners, thank you very much, even though he’s crushing horribly.

    “Um.” Chris looks bashful, scuffing his shoe over the ground and messing with his hair. “Today is still - we’re still gonna meet up today, right?”

    “Yeah, of course.”

    “Awesome!” The blinding smile is back on his face, and it’s directed towards Phil, who feels like he’s going to faint. “‘Cause, um, I noticed you take the bus? So uh, I don’t mean to, like, presume or anything, but like… I brought a car.” He jerks his head to the vehicle. It’s bright red and Phil doesn’t know anything about cars, but it is very pretty. And probably fast. “So that we could… you know. Drive together. To the library. And stuff. After school. If you’re cool with that.”

    “Of course I’m cool with that,” Phil parrots back at him. And then: “It’s a really nice car.”

That’s a thing you say about cars, right? That they’re nice? ‘It’s got a color and four wheels, it looks great.’

    “Oh! Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s my dad’s, I borrowed it. A Ferrari.”

    “That’s awesome,” Phil’s traitorous mouth says, and he can feel a blush coming on. “Uhh… a Ferrari.”

    “You don’t know anything about cars, do you?”

And holy shit, Chris is cute like that, smirk prominent in the curve of his lips. Phil turns bright red.

    “Not really, no,” he says, throwing the car another sidelong glance. “It looks nice though. Is it - fast?”

Chris laughs. “Yeah, it’s real fast. I can show you later, if - if you’d like?”

    “Oh - oh my god, yeah!”

  
  


Phil spends the first few lessons wondering whether that was too enthusiastic.  He then spends the next few lessons fretting over sitting with Chris for - well, how long is Chris going to want to spend time with him?

  
  


And then school’s out and he carefully makes his way over to Chris’ car. That would be a good place to wait for Chris, right?

Except more and more people leave the school grounds and the groups start to thin out and what if Phil missed when Chris said where they’d meet? Maybe Chris texted him but - no, no new messages.

    “Hey, sorry I’m late!” Chris bumps into him from behind, their shoulders brushing for just a moment. “I had to, uh, talk to my math teacher about something. Are you ready to go?”

‘Ready’ is a subjective term that implies Phil isn’t vibrating with nervous energy at the thought of hanging out with Chris Pike and helping him study.

    “Sure!”

They get into the car and Chris lowers the top with a little smile.

    “So how fast does it go?” Phil asks, trying to make conversation.

    “174.”

    “Miles? Per hour?”

    “Yep.” Chris grins. “Wanna see?”

    “You can’t - you can’t go that far anywhere! The speed limits -”

    “Well - sure, but it feels great. So… if you wanna… you know, uh, I could take you out for a bit after studying.”

    “Yeah. Yeah, why not?”

Chris reverses the car nicely, off the car park and down the street. The wind blows in his hair nicely and Phil can’t really look away.

  
  


They find a table in a quiet corner and Phil more or less dumps his stack of chemistry books and folders filled with notes on it. Chris’ eyes grow comically wide.

    “Alright. Well, that’s not scary at all.”

    “Want to get started?”

  
  


By the time Chris begs him to stop because his head is filled completely useless cotton, the warm feeling in Phil’s stomach has expanded to everywhere. They ended up sitting close enough for their shoulders to touch, and occasionally Chris’ fingers would brush against Phil’s and he feels warm and giddy and he’s probably laughing too much but it’s so easy to laugh in Chris’ presence.

    “So um…” Chris fiddles with his fingers. “You, um, wanna go get milkshakes and I show you how fast the car can go?”

    “I’d like that,” Phil admits, trying not to grin too broadly. And because he can’t stop himself: “You know, this was kinda fun. I hope it helped you, or something.”

Good God Chris’ eyes are nice this close up.

    “Yeah, it did. It’s - you really know a lot about this, and, uh, you make a great teacher. Have you - is that something you’d, I don’t know.”

    “See myself doing after school? No. I was thinking about medicine, actually?”

    “Fuck, that’s cool, dude. Super hard though.”

    “Yeah, probably. You?” 

Chris is really close now. He smells of leather and some kind of really tasty male cologne. Phil wants to lick his neck, just a little.

    “I don’t know really. Maybe something to do with space.”

    “Space is cool,” Phil offers.

They’re really close. He can feel Chris’ breath.

    “Yeah, it is.”

There’s less than an inch between them now. Phil’s heart is in his throat.

And then he does the stupidest thing he’s ever done.

    “So, you want to get milkshakes?”

Chris’ eyes open comically wide and he pulls back. 

    “Oh - yeah, sure, sure.” He bites his lips, clears his throat, shuffles some of the materials on the desk around. “Yeah, let’s… do that.”

  
  


The trip to the milkshake place is quiet and awkward and once they’ve got their orders and are slowly returning to Chris’ car, both of them are occupied a lot more with their straws.

Phil can still feel the tingle from the almost-kiss and he wants to slam his head into a brick wall because honestly, he almost got kissed by Chris Pike and he had to ruin it.

Chris fumbles with the keys on the driver side and swears quietly when he accidentally drops them.

His hands are shaking, Phil realizes when they’ve gotten in and Chris is fumbling again with the ignition.

Eventually he just sighs and gives up and turns to Phil.

    “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have - I thought you, you know, you wanted me to, um, to kiss you, and all that, but… I should’ve asked or something. I’m sorry.”

    “No,” Phil says. Phil is an idiot. “I mean - you - that - I - fuck.”

Eloquent.

    “I, um, thought you liked guys,” Chris admits. “Not - not because there’s rumors or anything, just - I don’t know, I just thought, and, well, kinda wanted to kiss you. I’m sorry. I’ll get you home.”

    “I do like guys!”

Chris’ head snaps up. “You do? I thought you liked girls.”

    “I thought  _ you _ liked girls.”

    “No! No, I don’t! But you like guys!”

    “Yeah, yeah, I do, it’s not - I just - you know.” Lame, Philip. Lame.

    “Just not me. Yeah, I get it, it’s cool.”

Chris manages to start the engine just as Phil whispers: “Of course I like you.”

What little forward momentum they had stops abruptly as Chris hits the brakes hard enough to make the whole car jerk.

    “What?!”

    “I said, ‘of course I like you’,” Phil tells the dashboard.

    “You do?”

    “I - yeah. I thought it was obvious.”

    “Well, um, I’m a bit of an idiot sometimes.”

    “Yeah.”

They’re both quiet for a moment. The engine rumbles.

    “Would you still show me how fast the car can go?” Phil asks, because maybe they can get a moment again, somewhere wherever Chris would drive them.

    “Oh! Yeah, sure!”

Chris kicks the car into gear and they zoom down the street, a bit faster than probably legal, but there’s a happy buzzing in Phil’s stomach so he’s not about to say anything. Chris’ hand looks good, wrapped about the gear stick like that.

They approach a red traffic light and Phil makes an executive decision.

The car practically snaps to a stop, their seatbelts digging into skin and muscle with how hard Chris brakes.

Someone honks at them because the light just turned green.

Chris’ hand feels really good under Phil’s.

He looks up to Phil and slowly there’s a smile spreading across his face, slowly, and then he lets go of the steering wheel to stroke over Phil’s knuckles and Phil grins back at him. Chris turns his hand upside down to take Phil’s and lift it up for a gentle kiss on his knuckles.

_ Oh _ .

Phil’s stomach tightens and flips like he just swallowed a live star.

Someone honks at them again.

Chris sets his hand down again, still gentle, changes gear and accelerates fast enough to make their tyres squeal and Phil’s stomach to flip some more.

  
  


They end up on a backstreet somewhere that’s decently paved, with no soul in sight. Chris stops and lets the machine idle, turning the bright smile he’s wearing to Phil.

    “Ready?”

Phil grabs hold of the door and smiles back.

    “Sure. I’ve never gone this fast bef-mmmh.”

Chris leans in to kiss him. It’s soft and warm and a little awkward and Phil tries to purse his lips and kiss back.

Chris pulls away and his smile is bright and sincere and Phil could care a whole lot less about how fast the car can go because he’s pretty sure he just hit supersonic speed. 

So he kisses Chris back.

  
  


Sure, Chris shows him how fast the car goes later, and he lets Phil drive it (even though Phil barely goes faster than ten miles per hour, because let’s face it, high speeds are scary), but it’s the feeling of Chris’ lips on his that have Phil lying in his bed staring up at the ceiling with a stupid smile for hours after his bedtime.

His phone vibrates, and even though he’s not supposed to use it after going to bed, he can’t help but check.

_ i really enjoyed this afternoon _

_ <3 _

A heart emoji. Chris sent him a heart emoji. Ohhhh.

_ Me too. I liked kissing you. _

_ we might have that in common ;) _

_ phil? _

_ Yeah? _

_ was that your first kiss? _

_ Kasidy Yates kissed me when we played spin the bottle at homecoming last year, soo…  _

_ ewww you kissed a girl :D _

_ If it’s any consolation, I liked kissing you better. _

_ good! i’ll do it again then _

_ I’d like that. _

  
  


 

Chris does kiss him again. In front of half his friends, and with an arm around Phil and a beautiful sunny smile.

It’s easy to hold his hand, and nice too, and Chris gives him a ride home on the back of his bike, which is scary and exhilarating and he gets to press his face against Chris’ neck and smell him, and he gets a goodbye kiss and doesn’t do his homework because he can’t do anything but stare into space, thinking about Chris.

**Author's Note:**

> the car is a 1972 ferrari 365 gtb/4 daytona spyder for reasons, and obviously it's very important to the story :D  
> (also it totally was chris' first kiss)


End file.
